When most New Orleanians think of Frenchmen Street, their imaginations likely conjure images of long, late nights filled with hot live music and cool libations rather than the cozy comforts of a local bakery. But that’s exactly what pastry chefs Kelly Jacques and Samantha Weiss had in mind when they brought their dream project, Ayu Bakehouse, to the neighborhood in the summer of 2022. Nestled snugly at the end of the strip across from Washington Square Park, the bakery – which rhymes with “bayou” – might even be the exact opposite of what locals and visitors tend to seek out when they head to that part of the Marigny, which is exactly why Ayu is such a welcome addition to the neighborhood.
“We wanted it to be an oasis at the end of Frenchmen,” said Weiss. “By the time you get here, you should feel like you’ve earned it, if you walked from the Quarter.”
“We strike a bit of a different note than what you might think of Frenchmen at peak hour,” continues Jacques. “We wondered, what if you thought of this place as really relaxing, and then use the park as a gateway to a different headspace.”
A conversation with Weiss and Jacques often unspools like this, with one finishing the other’s sentences in the fashion that only truly close friends acquire over years of working and dreaming together, and they come by that natural rhythm honestly. The pair initially met while in pastry school in New York at the French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center), where they bonded over long nights learning the delicate intricacies of the baking arts together, although their roads there couldn’t be more different. Jaques made her way to Manhattan after working as a pastry chef at Nola Restaurant in the French Quarter after graduating from Tulane with a degree in glass-blowing. “At some point, I was like, “Okay, I’d like to know more than bread pudding,” said Jacques, “and I think I need to leave the Quarter to do that. So that got me looking at pastry school, and I was like ‘I’m going to go to New York, let’s try this thing out! Meanwhile…”
“I was working in financial services but knew I didn’t want to do that forever,” Weiss continued. “I wanted to be in the food industry, though I wasn’t sure in what capacity, but I knew I wanted to go to pastry school. So we ended up in the same class on nights and weekends.”
“She would change out of a business suit, and I was like ‘Who is this person?’”
The pair circled each other around the culinary scene in New York for some time, eventually winding up working together at Breads Bakery, where they gradually began to dream of a place they might call their own. In time, that brought Jacques back to New Orleans, and not long after Weiss came down to join her to make the project a reality.
When Ayu Bakehouse opened its doors just over a year and half ago, it almost instantly became a hit with both visitors and faubourg denizens alike. Much of that can be attributed to the menu, which deftly navigates the tightrope of embracing tradition while at the same time playing with more novel culinary concepts. Many of the flavors you’ll find there take their inspiration from the cultural backgrounds of the bakery’s owners. Weiss was reared in Albany, N.Y. with a Jewish father and a mother who grew up on a farm, giving her a childhood filled with both Ashkenazi staples like bagels and lox as well as traditional American baked goods, a constant bounty of cookies, fudge, cinnamon rolls and rum cakes. As for Jacques, “My grandmother’s from Indonesia, and during WWII they moved to Singapore, and all my relatives on my dad’s side are from there,” she said. “That’s where I was introduced to some flavors that I’d never had before – pandan, specifically – and the experience of going to the hocker markets, eating lapis cakes, and some of the aesthetic of it, too. It felt like I had this untapped place in my life that I wanted to explore.”
As a result, the menu at Ayu is something wonderfully and literally fresh, a combination of classic Continental techniques with Jewish, Indonesian, and of course Louisiana influences. You’ll find a quintessential chocolate chip cookie right alongside coconut pandan macarons, kaya buns next to French baguettes, seasonal tartlets festooned with seasonal berries, and an absolutely pitch perfect, soul-meltingly decadent chocolate babka, amongst other delights.
You’d be remiss, however, if you were to somehow skip out on Ayu’s savory options, which are perhaps the most satisfying of the lot. The “muff sticks” are a perfect amalgam of portable breadsticks and the traditionally less-than-portable muffuletta sandwich, resulting in a package that combines those essential New Orleans flavors while allowing you to still hold a drink in one hand as you snack with the other. The same can be said for their breakfast “sandwiches,” laminated dough stuffed with either boudin and jammy eggs or a savory mushroom filling, both served with a side of hot chili oil, a fusion of flavors and textures that strike a chord between familiarity and novelty in the most satisfying way. And, of course, this being Carnival season, their innovative king cakes this year include a cream cheese and cinnamon sugar rendition and a chocolate babka version, as well as a signature muffuletta-stuffed variant.
While their baking odyssey and their friendship may have been forged in New York, Weiss and Jacques are definitely at home in New Orleans. “I love that we’re a part of a food culture that feels inherently supportive, especially compared to New York,” mused Jacques. “I feel like all small businesses really have each others’ back, and it’s never like a cutthroat, competitive feeling. We feel like we’re in a club of really hungry, hardworking, passionate people. That’s something so special and unique to this city.”
About the Chefs
Kelly Jacques moved to New Orleans from Michigan to attend Tulane University, mostly in a bid to get as far afield from home as possible. After graduating, she worked as a pastry chef at Nola in the French Quarter with a pop-up on the side. She soon found her way to culinary school in New York, and then to Breads Bakery, where she worked for 10 years crafting pastry and breads as well as in operations before moving back to New Orleans to open Ayu Bakehouse.
Samantha Weiss grew up in Albany, NY and studied marketing and finance at Northeastern University. After working in financial services for a number of years, she decided to swap her job as a trade support analyst for the life of a pastry cook. After stints at Ai Fiori and as an assistant and operations manager for chocolatier Jacques Torres, Weiss found herself once again working side by side with her friend Kelly Jacques at Breads Bakery before eventually joining her in New Orleans to found Ayu.
Southerns Food Truck
Like almost everything about Carnival in New Orleans, how Mardi Gras revelers choose to fill their bellies along the parade route is a point of great and spirited debate. Should you be looking to change things up from your typical Popeyes and jambalaya parade fuel, do yourself a favor and seek out the Southerns food truck, which offers what might be the most satisfying fried chicken sandwich in the city available on Fat Tuesday. A mouth-wateringly massive combination of fried chicken, pickles and slaw, it will sate even the most raucous bacchant this Carnival. Definitely a step up from “chicken on a stick!”
King Cake Hub
It is a Mardi Gras conundrum as old as time itself: How does one possibly taste every new, fancy, traditional, wacky or inventive king cake before Ash Wednesday rolls around? The solution to this predicament has stumped even the most sagacious New Orleanians until recently, with the advent of the ingenious King Cake Hub, which holds court in Zony Mash throughout Carnival. No longer will you have to scour the city going bakery to bakery, restaurant to restaurant to get your fix; whether you like your king cake topped with candied pralines, stuffed with strawberry cream cheese, fashioned out of laminated croissant dough or jammed with boudin, “the hub” has all of your wildest king cake fantasies available in a single, extremely convenient location. Bring a full wallet and some hungry friends for the best experience, of course.
